rebyl_kayak said on 2 August 2009 21:55 > Does anyone have experience ... prescription sunglasses > and ... polaroid lenses ... problem with LCD screens I've been kayaking with polarised prescription sunglasses for about 7 years. Wouldn't be without them. I've always been short-sighted and so I've been through most of the variations of eye-correction. I wore specs for 20-odd years (sometimes with flip-up Polaroids). Then around 1978 I switched to contacts and wore Ray-Bans (Ambermatics and G-somethings). Finally, about 7 years ago, with the spectre looming of needing reading glasses on top of the contacts, I had my eyes lasered. This was triggered by avoiding the hassle of reading glasses - but also because of the joy of going without contacts while kayaking. Rolling is now more fun and now fussing with lens solutions in a tent (after a long day or before dawn) is behind me. Thankfully. The laser process was pretty accurate - OK for a driving license - but it left me with a mild astigmatism that I can correct with a prescription lens. I decided that I would correct the eye completely in my sunglasses and just do without when not wearing sunnies. That has worked well. I speak of 'the eye', as I chose to have one eye set up to be long-sighted and one-eye short-sighted. That way, I can drive and enjoy the view - but I can also read small print. It hadn't occurred to me that this was possible until I started reading up on laser eye surgery on the Net. When I went to discuss the possibilities with the surgeon, he almost wept. He'd given up on asking people to consider it (nobody seemed to want to) and here I was asking him to do it. We checked out my ability to cope with it (using dissimilar contacts for 3 months) and then went ahead. Most people are fine with it, but it seems few consider it. It's worked very well for me. Anyway, sorry to bore you with all that - but just wanted to establish that I've been through most of the vision stuff over the last 50 years and I'm now very, very pleased with polarised prescription light-sensitive sunglasses. For kayaking in sunny & shallow conditions, I love them. For reducing eyestrain in glare on the water or driving - ditto. Only a couple of things to watch out for: (a) looking at anything with its own polarisation. I remember playing with this when the old flip-ups came out. Take two polarised lenses and slowly rotate one of them and no light will get through when they are 90 degrees to each other. My new Canon camera has an LCD that is polarised (two previous ones did not). When held normally, I can't see anything on the Canon's screen. When held vertically (in 'portrait'), there is no problem. I believe some car dashboards are polarised as well, but I've been lucky - I can't remember ever renting one with the problem. None of my Garmin, my cellphone, my SH-VHF and my various notebooks do polarised - so I have no problem working with them in sunshine, wearing the polarised sunglasses. Only if the salt is so thick... but that's another story. (b) They are costly - so work out a way of not losing them. I looked at the various retainers I'd used over the years and none of them are really secure. On land, I'd always had good luck with the RayBan wire ear-loops that wrap half-way round your ear - but I once ripped off a pair of those with a roll (in deep water - of course - damn!). The other slip-on or tie-on straps look like they will work really well until they age - and with my luck I'd find out that they had deteriorated - the hard way. So, I copied a trick I saw on a pair of sunglasses worn by a visitor from Canada and drilled two tiny holes - one in the end of each ear-piece. Make the holes just big enough for a small wire swivel (the thingy you put on the end of a fishing line, to make swapping lures easy). String the two swivels together with a short length of cord. I use very fine shock-cord. You can attach the swivels & cord for water-use in seconds and remove it equally fast. It lives in my car and if I had to, I'd make up two or more. When I put on my sun-hat or helmet (both with chin-straps) - it will take a major event to lose the glasses. When not on my face, they live in a drawstring bag on my PFD shoulder strap (seemed the safest place). The transfer from face to bag gets 100% of my attention ;-) This system has worked for 7 years of year-round kayaking; most days wearing the sunglasses for some of the time. So I'm happy that it works well and has made the investment in good glasses worthwhile. With some trepidation about fogging-up, I went to the eye-socket filling style of sunglass. After years of the Aviator (or RayBan Shooter) styles, I traded some ventilation for much better side glare protection. Now, if I really sprint and then stop, I can fog them a bit - but it doesn't happen often. I just push them down my nose a bit for a few minutes until I cool down. The benefit of protection from the glare from the side and below is well worth it. I also seem to get less sweat (from my forehead ) onto them - I don't know why. Best Regards Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. 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